Incoming ZANU-PF Member of Parliament for Lupane East Constituency, Phathisiwe Machangu, has pledged to address water challenges and hunger in the area.
Machangu received 6 863 votes beating Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Tshabangu candidate, David Nyathi who only managed 1 750 votes.
In the August general election, Machangu had lost to CCC candidate Bright Vanya Moyo.
Machangu received 6 241 votes while Moyo garnered 6 476 votes.
The by-election in Lupane East constituency was peaceful with some villagers highlighting their excitement in the by-election.
According to the Election Resource Centre (ERC), Lupane East is one of the constituencies that had the highest voter turnout compared to other areas.
The constituency had a vote turnout of 38.5 percent.
In some polling stations such as Makhovula primary school polling station as of 9am 106 voters had cast their votes.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) data capture for Matabeleland North Province, Simangele Vika said as at 4pm 5 812 people had cast their votes in the constituency., with 3 595females and 2 217 males having voted.
Speaking to CITE, Machangu said she will prioritise development in the constituency.
“I am promising people development, there is a challenge of water in this area, people need boreholes, for the past two years there has been no adequate rain,” she said.
Machangu said she is also going to address the issue of food challenges following that people haven’t received rain for two seasons.
“There are also food challenges, there is no food, and this place is dry, so development is needed here. There are a lot of things including clinics, and schools that we need to establish, we will work with the government to assist people in Matabeleland,” she said.
A local villager, Kidwell Mhlanga said their greatest challenge was a shortage of boreholes in their area.
“We get water from the local dam which we share with livestock. We are drinking unclean water and we fear that we might be attacked by diseases anytime. We don’t have any boreholes we only get water from the dam,” he said.
